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The desire for part-time careers is increasing due to changing workforce demographics. More women are entering the professional arena, creating an increased demand for parental leave and extended tenure clocks. Dual career couples are struggling to meet the emotional and physical needs of growing families. Students are focusing on work-home balance and a controllable lifestyle. Minority students are more likely to engage in public service and work part-time.
In other professions, employers have addressed these issues by making a “business case” for part-time practice. However, the support for part-time careers in academic internal medicine varies greatly among institutions. At a time when the attractiveness of internal medicine is at stake, physician retention is precarious, stress is great, and the higher ranks of
academia suffer from a shortage of women and minorities. The leaders of academic internal medicine are uniting in their efforts to understand, support, and maximize part-time opportunities.
During the past year, the associations in the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM) have approved a proposal to make academic internal medicine more welcoming to faculty and staff who wish to pursue part-time careers. The proposal involves collaboration among the associations to develop an action plan on how to structure part-time careers for faculty and staff
in departments of internal medicine.
To lead the AAIM effort, the Association of Subspecialty Professors (ASP) has created a task force on part-time careers. In addition to members from the associations in the alliance, the task force will also include representatives from other organizations—such as the Society of General Internal Medicine—that are also grappling with this topic. The ASP Task Force on Part-Time Careers is expected to meet eight goals (Figure).
By meeting these goals, the task force will develop an action plan to help departments of internal medicine implement part-time career paths. These departments will likely benefit from immediately enhancing the image of internal medicine as a welcoming field by medical students who seek a personal-professional balance; increasing retention of faculty whose life
circumstances lead to a need for reduced work hours; and creating a mechanism for helping faculty and staff re-enter the workforce (or extend their careers). Additional benefits will stem from more satisfied, more motivated faculty and staff who will be more learnercentered teachers and better role models for students. For more information on this effort, or if you have an interest in participating in the ASP Task Force on Part-Time Careers, please contact ASP Councilor Mark Linzer, MD—who will chair the task force—at mxl@medicine.wisc.edu or (608) 265-8118.
Mark Linzer, MD
Chief
Division of General Internal Medicine
Department of Medicine
University of Wisconsin Medical School
Linda Baier Manwell
Epidemiologist
Division of General Internal Medicine
Department of Medicine
University of Wisconsin Medical School
Carole Warde, MD
Associate Program Director
Department of Medicine
University of California, Irvine
College of Medicine
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